The other two serious contenders, Francois Bayrou and Jean Marie Le Pen, received 18.7 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively.

Sarkozy and Royal, the first woman to get this far in a French presidential election, will go head-to-head in a runoff May 6.

Voter turnout Sunday reached nearly 74 percent, surpassing the total from the last national election. The total represented the highest voter turnout for a first round of elections in France since 1981.

The more than 1 million new registered voters also made history, as the increase was the largest in the last 25 years.